montelatici
Gold Member
- Feb 5, 2014
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The average birthrate in the EU is 1.5. About .5 below the replacement rate. This includes the contribution of non-European immigrants which have a far higher rate. Italy has a birth rate of 1.29. At that rate in 100 years Italians will disappear. Spain's rate is even lower.
The first of the baby boom generation throughout Europe and the U.S. will turn 70 this year. With the death rates climbing, the low birthrates will see an acceleration of population decline.
Until about 1980, Italy had tremendously generous paid leave for mothers. Nearly a year of paid leave to take care of a child beginning about a month before the expected birth date, plus a guarantee that an equal paying or better job would be available upon return to the workforce. The birth rate was above 2 until then. As the motherhood benefits began to disappear, the birth rate has declined to about half of what it was. I think that there has been a similar dynamic in most European countries.
The reason motherhood benefits and other social benefits have been disappearing is for competitive purposes, for profit maximization purposes. The race to the bottom in social benefits for European and (and the non-existence of the same for American workers) has reduced the ability of people to have and raise children, hence the most responsible (and intelligent) of the working class, the class that has to worry about making ends meet, are having fewer children.
What's to be done. Will the European race just disappear?
The first of the baby boom generation throughout Europe and the U.S. will turn 70 this year. With the death rates climbing, the low birthrates will see an acceleration of population decline.
Until about 1980, Italy had tremendously generous paid leave for mothers. Nearly a year of paid leave to take care of a child beginning about a month before the expected birth date, plus a guarantee that an equal paying or better job would be available upon return to the workforce. The birth rate was above 2 until then. As the motherhood benefits began to disappear, the birth rate has declined to about half of what it was. I think that there has been a similar dynamic in most European countries.
The reason motherhood benefits and other social benefits have been disappearing is for competitive purposes, for profit maximization purposes. The race to the bottom in social benefits for European and (and the non-existence of the same for American workers) has reduced the ability of people to have and raise children, hence the most responsible (and intelligent) of the working class, the class that has to worry about making ends meet, are having fewer children.
What's to be done. Will the European race just disappear?
